Recently, a number of photography luminaries such as Scott Bourne suggested that we will see DSLR camera manufacturers adopt Apple’s touch-to-expose/focus user interface that they rolled out in the new iPhone 3GS. Not only do I agree, I think this will not be limited to DSLRs nor to just the way Apple implemented touch on the iPhone. Despite a touch-screen LCD being more expensive than a regular LCD, we will see this technology initially not only in DSLRs (maybe not entry-level DSLRs), but also in high-end point&shoots (Canon’s G10 would be one example) as well as the new micro 3/4 cameras (DSLR-like systems without mirror, thus smaller form factors) such as the Olympus PEN P-E1 and the Panasonic DMC-G1. In fact, Panasonic with its history of aggressively pushing technical innovation would be the prime candidate for rapidly rolling out touch-screen LCDs.
If I was the product manager for Panasonic’s micro four third cameras, here’s what I would tell my engineers to work on:
Single-Tap to Focus and Expose
Simply copy Apple’s functionality. Tap to focus, set exposure and white balance. Watch out for patents and don’t worry too much about improvements – this needs to be (only) as good as Apple’s iPhone implementation.
Double-Tap to Spotmeter, then Focus
Traditionally, you point your camera’s center to where you want to spotmeter, half press the shutter, press the AE Lock (”*”) button on your camera, recompose, then half-press the shutter again to focus. This 1-2 operation could easily be implemented through a touch screen – simply tap first where you want to expose, then second to where you want to focus. Much easier without the need to recompose, which is cumbersome esp. when you shoot from a tripod.
Triple-Tap to HDR
HDR will go in-camera. While creating the actual HDR image might stay off-camera for a while longer (at least in professional cameras), making it easier to shoot multiple images for HDR will be advanced from where it is today. With a touch-screen LCD, simply tap on the three spots on the screen that you want to expose to for highlights, mid-tones and lowlights, then let the software compute the stops and how many shots to take.
Hover to Zoom
Similarly to the iPhone where hovering over text brings up the zoom loupe, tap and hover a spot on the screen and the camera zooms into that spot. This would be display only, not for composition, so the actual zoom on the lens would not be invoked. This would work for both live-view (before taking the shot, so you can check on details, sharpness…) and viewing an image after the shot.
And then there is the matter of using the iPhone as a remote to our cameras, but that will be covered in another post!
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